Guatemala among top global reformers in World Bank's Doing Business report

By Ulric Rindebro - Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Guatemala was among the top business regulation reformers in the world during 2012-13, according to the World Bank's annual Doing Business report.

The Central American country was the only nation from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to make it into the Doing Business 2014's top reformers list. The other countries on this list were Ukraine, Rwanda, Russia, the Philippines, Kosovo, Djibouti, Côte d'Ivoire, Burundi and Macedonia.

The Doing Business report includes 189 economies and ranks the economies in 10 areas of business regulation, including regulations for starting a business, resolving insolvency and trading across borders.

Guatemala made it into the top reformers list by undertaking three reforms: making it easier to start a business, dealing with construction permits and paying taxes. Overall, Guatemala ranked 79 on the global ranking.

BEST AND WORST COUNTRIES IN LAC

Chile was the LAC country that ranked the best on the global ranking at 34th place, with Puerto Rico and Peru following at number 40 and 42, respectively.

The region's two largest economies, Brazil and Mexico, were ranked at number 116 and 53.

Among the LAC nations, Venezuela was the worst ranked at 181, followed by Haiti (177) and Bolivia (162).

The global ranking was topped by Singapore, with Hong Kong and New Zealand in second and third place.

GLOBAL PROGRESS ON REGULATIONS FRONT

Worldwide, 114 economies implemented 238 regulatory reforms in 2012-13 making it easier to do business, which represented an increase of 18% compared to the previous report.

"A better business climate that enables entrepreneurs to build their businesses and reinvest in their communities is key to local and global economic growth," said World Bank Group president Jim Yong Kim. "Doing Business shows that economies with better business regulations are more likely to empower local entrepreneurs to create more jobs - another step in the right direction toward ending extreme poverty by 2030."

The report notes that if economies around the world were to follow best practices in regulatory processes for starting a business, entrepreneurs would spend 45mn fewer days in total satisfying bureaucratic requirements.